We Don't Know Ourselves

A Personal History of Modern Ireland

In We Don't Know Ourselves, Fintan O'Toole weaves his own experiences into Irish social, cultural, and economic change, showing how Ireland, in just one lifetime, has gone from a reactionary "backwater" to an almost totally open society - perhaps the most astonishing national transformation in modern history.

Born to a working-class family in the Dublin suburbs, O'Toole served as an altar boy and attended a Christian Brothers school. He was enthralled by American Westerns suddenly appearing on Irish television, which were not that far from his own experience, given that Ireland's main export was beef and it was still not unknown for herds of cattle to clatter down Dublin's streets. Yet the Westerns were a sign of what was to come. 

O'Toole narrates the once unthinkable collapse of the all-powerful Catholic Church, brought down by scandal and by the activism of ordinary Irish, women in particular. He relates the horrific violence of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, which led most Irish to reject violent nationalism. In O'Toole's telling, America became a lodestar, from John F. Kennedy's 1963 visit, when the American president was welcomed as a native son, to the emergence of the Irish technology sector in the late 1990s, driven by American corporations, which set Ireland on the path toward particular disaster during the 2008 financial crisis.

©2021 Fintan O'Toole (P)2022 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

truly spectacular

What a wonderful listen —reader was terrific and did real justice to O’Toole’s witty and moving account of Ireland’s amazing changes during his lifetime. Highly recommend it!

Absolutely brilliant

Beautifully written, poignant, sad, and hopeful. I'm sorry the book is done and I'm not sure where to go from here that won't be a let down.

Very dense and informative

Starts off a bit dry but I learned a ton and found the writing and story much more engaging as it built

One of the Most Fascinating and Engaging Books I’ve Ever Read

I can’t imagine anyone (Irish or otherwise) not getting something out of this extraordinary work.

History that is alive, accurate and readable

Fintan O’Toole is a very good writer—a pleasure to read. Every page is alive. This book tells the story of Ireland in the Post WW2 period up to 2018. It is social, political and cultural history well told. Highly recommended.